What is a Grievance?
According to the Collective Agreement, Section 17.01, a grievance is any of the following:
- a difference regarding the interpretation, application, operation or contravention or alleged contravention of this collective agreement.
- a complaint regarding an alleged unjust treatment or discrimination.
- a complaint regarding alleged unfair working conditions.
- a complaint regarding the dismissal, suspension or demotion of a probationary academic staff member
- a complaint regarding any disciplinary action involving financial penalty, other than the one described in 17.01(d).
Grievance Process
An academic staff member should first discuss the subject of the proposed grievance with the member’s Academic Chair or Manager in an attempt to resolve the matter. An Association Representative may accompany and assist the academic staff member at this stage.
All grievances shall be submitted in writing setting forth all of the following:
- the nature of the grievance and the circumstances from which it arose.
- the remedy or correction requested.
- the section or sections of the collective agreement alleged to have been misapplied or violated.
- a grievance shall normally be presented upon the Official Grievance Form, provided that a grievance shall not be deemed invalid by reason of the fact that it is not in accordance with the prescribed form.
The grievance process has three levels of activities.
- LEVEL 1: The hearing officer at Level one is your Dean. The hearing officer has ten working days, from the date of the hearing, to provide a decision. If a settlement is not reached at Level 1, the grievance can be advanced to Level two within five working days of receiving the Level one decision.
- LEVEL 2: The Level 2 grievance is heard by the Vice President Academic who has five working days to provide a decision from the date of hearing. If a settlement is not reached at Level 2, and the grievance is one eligible for consideration by an Arbitration Board, the grievance may proceed to Arbitration within 5 days of the Level 2 decision providing that you have the approval of Association.
- LEVEL 3: The Level 3 grievance is heard by an Arbitration board.
Grievance Timelines
The grievance process is subject to strict timelines. It is therefore important to give notice of the intent to grieve within the time limits specified and to be aware of deadlines throughout the process. If you fail to process a grievance during the time specified in the Collective Agreement, your grievance will be considered to be abandoned.
Keep in mind, however, that timelines are calculated in terms of “Days” that correspond to normal working days. Saturdays, Sundays, and statutory holidays (as defined in the Collective Agreement) do not count in the calculation of grievance timelines but vacation days do count.
Grievance timelines can be extended by mutual written agreement of the Associate Vice President of Employee Services and the Association.
Grievance FAQ (A chat with SAFA’s Labour Relations Officer Al Brown)
#1 What is the difference between a complaint and a grievance?
Not all complaints are grievances. A complaint becomes a grievance if it is due to the Employer’s improper application, interpretation or the alleged violation of the Collective Agreement. If you are in doubt, consult with me (the Labour Relations Officer) or the President. We can give advice on the grievance process and give an opinion on whether the situation is grieveable.
#2 What is the purpose of “informal discussion”?
Our Collective Agreement advises using informal conflict resolution meetings to reach a solution prior to going to grievance. The benefit of such an approach is that it gives management an opportunity to step back from the emotion of the moment to review their decisions while positions are still elastic. It can also result in a timelier resolution to the problem that tends to preserve work relationships.
My experience is, once the formal grievance procedure commences, that positions can become rigid. We move from a consensus-based agreement (win/win) that preserves relationships, to a decision based on argument (win/lose) at a formal grievance hearing. Generally, the faculty member is simply looking for justice and is open to the informal process; however, this approach requires a willingness on both sides to reach a fair result. So, if we are unable to find a satisfactory resolution to our differences through informal discussion, we can still move to level one of the grievance process.
#3 What happens if I can’t resolve my complaint via informal discussion?
A grievance can be filed, with the approval of the Association, within ten working days of your first reasonable opportunity of knowing that a grievance had allegedly occurred. Filing a grievance results in a “grievance hearing” presided over by a “hearing officer”. The formal grievance process can have 3 levels of action:
#4 How important is it for me to follow the grievance procedure as per the Collective Agreement?
Very important! The Collective Agreement contains all procedural issues pertaining to filing of the grievance. Failure to do so may result in the grievance being denied on a “technicality”. I never have been able to pin down what’s meant by the term “technicality”, but I do know that, in all cases, it is something that can be avoided. Again, if you are in doubt, contact your SAFA representative.
#5 What is the difference between an Individual Grievance, a Group Grievance and a Policy Grievance?
An Individual Grievance is simply that – a grievance brought forward by an individual concerning their individual circumstances.
A Group Grievance is treated very much the same as an individual grievance but, obviously, it affects more than one person. To be precise, as soon as you have two or more people grieving the same issue at one time, it becomes a Group Grievance. The members of the “group” are still individuals and must be treated that way. For instance, it is possible that each individual within the group may have different views on what would be a satisfactory remedy. Therefore, each group member is entitled to abandon the grievance at any time but no one individual within the group can make an agreement that affects the other members.
A Policy Grievance is distinctly different from an Individual or Group Grievance. The Association, on behalf of all its members, files a Policy Grievance. The particular issue may or may not affect all members, but it differs in that the grievance is not filed on behalf of an individual. And, typically, any remedy cannot “go back in time”. In other words, if the Association is successful, the remedy is implemented on a “go forward” basis.
#6 How important are timelines?
Timelines are very important! Failure to comply with the timelines as set in the Collective Agreement is grounds for the Employer to declare the grievance abandoned and it ends immediately. Our Collective Agreement requires that a Level One grievance be filed “within ten (10 working) days of the date upon which the academic staff member had the first reasonable opportunity of knowing that a grievance had allegedly occurred”. Many times, after a grievance has been filed, one party or the other will request an extension to the timelines specified in the Collective Agreement. This can be done by “mutual agreement” between the Association and the Employer. Most often, extensions are granted.